Dover - The Delaware State Police announce today, the retirement of Major Charles J. Simpson. Major Simpson has served the citizens of Delaware with distinction for over 33 years.

Major Charles J. Simpson was hired on September 2, 1980 into the 42nd DSP Recruit Class. Major Simpson began his career in Sussex County and then moved to New Castle County where he worked at Troop 1 and Troop 6 and became a Canine Handler. Major Simpson worked in the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), was a member of the North Hostage Negotiation Team and was Officer in Charge of the Intelligence Unit. Major Simpson was promoted to Captain in June 2000 and assigned to Troop 2 as Commander. He later became the Commander of SIU. Major Simpson and his family moved back to Sussex County where he became Commander at Troop 4. After four years as Troop Commander, Major Simpson was promoted to Major and joined the Executive Staff as the Operations Major for Kent and Sussex Counties.

Major Simpson retires today, Friday, December 13, 2013 after 33 years. Major Simpson resides in Lewes, Delaware with his wife Donna. He is a proud father of Josh, Alaina, Emily, and Colleen and a very proud grandfather of Madison, Mackenzie and Michael, with another on the way!

WASHINGTON — CIA officers revealed a clash over how quickly they should go help the besieged U.S. ambassador during the 2012 attack on an outpost in Libya, and a standing order for them to avoid violent encounters, according to a congressman and others who heard their private congressional testimony or were briefed on it.

The Obama administration has been dogged by complaints that theWhite House, Pentagon and State Department may not have done enough before and during the attack to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, and by accusations that it later engaged in a cover-up.

One allegation was that U.S. officials told the CIA to “stand down” and not go to the aid of the Americans. Top CIA and Defense and State Department officials have denied that. More

JOHANNESBURG — The sign language interpreter who gestured meaninglessly at the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa on Tuesday has faced charges of murder, rape, theft, breaking and entering, malicious damage to property and kidnapping, according toeNCA.com.

The South African news site said the outcome of the murder charge against Thamsanqa Jantjie, brought in 2003, was unknown because the court case file is “mysteriously empty.”

He doesn’t write code — or bother himself with the tasks of governing.

In explaining the disastrous rollout of Obamacare, President Obama told Chris Matthews he had discovered that “we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly.”

An interesting discovery to make after having consigned the vast universe of American medicine, one-sixth of the U.S. economy, to the tender mercies of the agency bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service.

Most people become aware of the hopeless inefficiency of sclerotic government by, oh, 17 at the department of motor vehicles. Obama’s late discovery is especially remarkable considering that he built his entire political philosophy on the rock of Big Government, on the fervent belief in the state as the very engine of collective action and the ultimate source of national greatness. (Indeed, of individual success as well, as in “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”)

On Jan. 1 it will become illegal to manufacture or import traditional 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent bulbs, thanks to a 2007 bill that set strict minimum efficiency standards – and effectively outlawed the ordinary bulb.

And like a politician on Election Day, Home Depot is urging consumers to buy early and often.

“Get them while you still can,” the nation’s largest bulb retailer urges on its website. “Stock up on incandescent light bulbs before they are completely discontinued.”More

Everyone has seen the 100-year US Dollar destruction chart; so here is the 200-year... a century without The Fed and a century with... which would you prefer?

Newton’s 3rd law states: To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. Sounds pretty simple right?

Except in Government, where for every action, the reaction seems to produce catastrophic consequences for such action. Yet inexplicably, the answer these days to everything seems to be more Government intervention and meddling. You would think that at this point we would have learned from our prior mistakes. Yet the meddling goes on and on and on….because it works so well.

Have you ever considered the true cost of all of this intervention? Think about it. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, we have been in perpetual warfare, we introduced the New Deal which birthed Government programs, we eliminated the gold standard, we flooded the market with massive credit expansion, we accumulated massive amounts of debt and have now seen the Government take over 20% of our economy through healthcare. As if all of the prior interventions were not enough, in just the last 5 years, we have had shovel ready, bank bailouts, trillion dollar stimulus, QE 1,2,3,4, operation twist, unemployment benefits extended, car bailouts and crony capitalism that threw good money after bad. What we have gotten is more of the same. More debt, more political posturing and the complete destruction of the dollar and the purchasing power of it. With it, no one is accountable. Not the Government, not the banks, not the private companies but the citizens whose burden it has become to fund all of this intervention.

PrivateSky developers speak out after being issued national security warrant

GCHQ, the British counterpart and facilitator to the NSA, has forced a privacy focused email service to shut down because it could not effectively spy on the encrypted emails people were sending.

As the blog IT Security Guru reports, a beta version of the PrivateSky service from London-based web security firm CertiVox was shut down early in 2013 following a government order.

The secure email encryption service, which worked with both web based email and Outlook, had “tens of thousands of heavily active users” before it was targeted by government spooks, according to the developers.

Readers of this page are well aware of the revelations during the past six months of spying by the National Security Agency (NSA). Edward Snowden, a former employee of an NSA vendor, risked his life and liberty to inform us of a governmental conspiracy to violate our right to privacy, a right guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

The conspiracy he revealed is vast. It involves former President George W. Bush, President Obama, their aides, a dozen or so members of Congress, federal judges, executives and technicians for American computer servers and telecommunications companies, and the thousands of NSA employees and vendors who have manipulated their fellow conspirators. The conspirators all agreed that it would be a crime for any of them to reveal the conspiracy. Mr. Snowdenviolated that agreement in order to uphold his higher oath to defend the Constitution.

"Chesapeake Treasures on that corner of Camden and Riverside Drive, is closed. Two signs out front Rinner "available" on them. Lights were off and nobody there. Looks like another long term business bites the dust".

Two things happened Tuesday, and both represented victories for Washington and defeats for America.

The smaller defeat was closing the federal government on account of an insignificant dusting of snow. The weather was so mild that no one in Denver or Minneapolis would have noticed it.

Federal employees – who we had been told throughout the shutdown were eager to go to work – suddenly had another paid day off.

I went to an 8 a.m. breakfast next to the White House. The roads were clear (and empty, as everyone stayed home). We had 15 people on time at 8 a.m. There was no snow accumulating at the White House.

Then I drove out to Dulles Airport with no problems. There were 200 people at that meeting. Everyone also made it to our business meeting at work later in the day, and one person even flew in that morning.

So, the private sector kept moving through the light snow, earning the tax money to pay the federal workers who couldn't manage to make their way through the flurries.

SNOW HILL — Charges of manslaughter and assault were temporarily dropped this week against a West Ocean City man in the death of his longtime friend, but new charges will be filed including the original counts along with a few lesser offenses. George Doran Nottingham, 48, of West Ocean City, was scheduled to appear for trial on Wednesday for the second time for his role in the death of Michael E. Post, 39, of Ocean City outside the Harbor Inn early in the morning last Jan. 26. Nottingham was charged early this year with manslaughter and assault following a “playful incident among friends” outside the Harbor Inn on Somerset Street last January that ended in tragedy.Nottingham was first tried in August, but after an emotional trial that took most of the day, a Worcester County jury deliberated for several hours deep into the evening before returning without a verdict. The hung jury could not come to a clear decision in the friendly altercation that went terribly wrong and a mistrial was declared.More

For almost 25 years, the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center has hosted a holiday basketball tournament. Four years ago, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley placed a unique spin on this tradition by issuing a friendly challenge to Delaware’s Governor Jack Markell. The wager: a Maryland Smith Island Cake to a Delaware Peach Pie. The tournament name was changed in honor of this wager, and the Maryland versus Delaware match-up continues this year.

Thirty-five teams from Maryland and Delaware will represent their state as games are played on the dual NCAA courts of the Normandy Arena. In a Friday, December 27 match-up, Wicomico High School is set for a rematch of the 2012 Maryland State 2A Championship game against Edmondson-Westside (Baltimore). Just prior to the game, spectators can watch tournament players compete in the High School Three-Point Shootout beginning at 6:30pm. After the game, the M&T Bank High School Slam Dunk Contest will keep the action alive.

Advanced tournament passes are currently available for the Governor’s Challenge Basketball Tournament and include admission every day for all games played. Advanced passes are $25 for adults and $15 for youth (11-18). Daily admission will also be sold at the gate. Daily pricing is $10 for adults and $5 for youth (11-18). Children under 11 are admitted free.

For more information, a complete schedule and advanced tickets please visit SalisburyChampionships.org. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 410-548-4911 or visiting the WY&CC Box Office located at 500 Glen Ave., Salisbury, MD 21804.

As Congress prepares to end its legislative session and the year draws to a close, FAIR reflects on the state of immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has lost track of 1.2 million visa holders, according to a Government Accountability Office report published this year. That means over 1 million people who entered the country legally could still be in the U.S. illegally after their visa expired.

This is a huge part of our illegal immigration problem. 40% of illegal aliens currently in the country originally entered legally.More

In the past year or two, we in the liberty movement seem to have made a lot of progress in getting across the ideas of freedom and peace to a larger group of people. Live and Let Live is not totally dead yet.

Ron Paul’s 2012 Presidential campaign and his subsequent college campus appearances have very much reached the younger people.

Nevertheless, it seems like an exercise in futility to try to get the people to understand that the one main impediment to their freedom, prosperity and their future is the State.

The militarized NFL and the way football fans act at games, and the Watertown sheeple’s approval of the cops’ unconstitutional door-to-door searches to find one lone teenage terrorist suspect, are not good signs.

Sadly, it seems as though most people just feel comfortable deferring responsibility for their lives to the State. They don’t seem to mind putting the agents of the State on a pedestal, no matter how corrupt, no matter how criminally such government employees behave.

Until the crimes are so egregious and continually exposed, then the people wake up and start to make a fuss. (e.g. the NSA spy scandal, ObamaCare, etc.)

OCEAN CITY – The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds this week officially announced the jet team will be returning to appear in the Ocean City Air Show in June 2014 after being grounded along with other military demonstration teams last year due to sequestration and federal budget cuts.The Thunderbirds will headline the June 14-15 event over the skies of the resort. The Thunderbirds formally announced their 2014 performance schedule this week following the International Council of Air Shows Convention in Las Vegas last week. The Thunderbirds last performed at the Ocean City Air Show in 2012 and were scheduled to appear again last June before all military demonstration teams were grounded due to sequestration and federal budget cuts.This fall, the Pentagon announced it was reinstating the Thunderbirds, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and other military demonstration units following the one-year hiatus. With the grounding orders lifted, the demonstration teams met in Las Vegas last week to begin patching together performance schedules for 2014 and beyond and the Thunderbirds included the Ocean City Air Show on its tour for 2014. The Ocean City Air Show in June will mark the Thunderbirds’ only performance in the mid-Atlantic region in 2014.More

The president of the United States, leader of the free world, standard-bearer for everything upright, good and wholesome about the nation he leads, lost his morality, his dignity and his mind, using the solemn occasion of Nelson Mandela’s memorial service Tuesday to act like a hormone-ravaged frat boy on a road trip to a strip bar.

In front of 91 world leaders, the mourning nation of South Africa and Obama’s clearly furious wife, Michelle, the president flirted, giggled, whispered like a recalcitrant child and made a damn fool of himself at first sight of Denmark’s voluptuously curvy and married prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Not to be outdone by the president’s bad behavior, the Danish hellcat hiked up her skirt to expose long Scandinavian legs covered by nothing more substantial than sheer black stockings.

The Affordable Care Act will bring some important changes to health care insurance next year, but many small businesses are still in the dark about how they'll be affected.

When Eric Tetler's insurance broker told him the health care premiums for his small business were going up 19% in 2014, Tetler feared he'd have to send his employees to the new health insurance exchange to buy their own coverage.

That was with a Dec. 1 renewal date, which meant the plan wouldn't have to comply with the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which take effect Jan. 1. He could have moved his renewal to Jan. 1 so the policy would be ACA-compliant, but that would have meant a 29% increase, says his broker, Tom Harte. Tetler's recycling and refining company, which employs more than 50 people, won't be required to provide an ACA-compliant plan until 2015.

Tetler stuck with his Dec. 1 date, sent his father and father-in-law — the company's founder, no less — to Medicare and raised employees' deductibles by $1,000 a year. That kept his premium about the same as this year's.

SNOW HILL — Five Delaware firefighters arrested in October after local law enforcement identified them as the suspects in a vandalism spree in northern Worcester County during which they threw watermelons at mailboxes and other property from the bed of a pick-up truck each pleaded guilty this week and were fined and placed on probation.Around 1:15 a.m. on October 4, Worcester County Sheriff’s Deputies were alerted by a resident in Bishopville that several people were riding around in dark-colored pick-up truck and smashing mailboxes. Worcester County Sheriff’s Deputies and Maryland State Police converged on the area and an MSP trooper located a dark-colored pick-up truck traveling on St. Martin’s Neck Rd. near Route 90.More

(CNSNews.com) - The new debt run up by the federal government since House Speaker John Boehner cut his first spending deal with President Barack Obama has now topped $3 trillion—exceeding all the debt accumulated under all American presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.

Boehner became speaker in January 2011, after the Republicans won a majority of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. He cut his first spending deal with President Barack Obama on March 1, 2011, and that deal took effect after March 4, 2011 when the continuing resolution then funding the government expired. Since then, the federal government has been funded under legislation approved by the Republican-controlled House that Boehner leads.

At the close of business on March 4, 2011, the federal debt was $14,182,627,184,881.03, according to the U.S. Treasury. As of the close of business on Dec. 10, 2013, it was $17,234,005,998,603.93.

That means that under federal spending deals negotiated during Boehner's speakership and approved by a Republican-majority House that Boehner leads, the federal debt has increased $3,051,378,813,722.90.

The number of banks is down to just under 6,900. There were 7,000 a year ago.

Banking regulation adds to costs. This wipes out small banks. It subsidizes big banks.

Which banks caused the crisis of 2008? Large banks. Which banks got the lion’s share of the bailouts from Congress and the Federal Reserve? The top 6 banks.

The Treasury Department relied on the recommendations of the Fed to decide which banks were healthy enough to get TARP money and how much, the former officials say. The six biggest U.S. banks, which received $160 billion of TARP funds, borrowed as much as $460 billion from the Fed, measured by peak daily debt calculated by Bloomberg using data obtained from the central bank. Paulson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The six — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley — accounted for 63 percent of the average daily debt to the Fed by all publicly traded U.S. banks, money managers and investment-services firms, the data show. By comparison, they had about half of the industry’s assets before the bailout, which lasted from August 2007 through April 2010. The daily debt figure excludes cash that banks passed along to money-market funds.

The crisis made them bigger, more powerful. The bailouts were subsidies for failure.

It’s the holidays! Time for snow, presents, joy, and the best part of all: helping each other out and appreciating each other. But unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The added stress of the holidays can bring out the worst in people, instead of the best. Whether it is someone at the mall, the mall parking lot, someone at work, or the in-laws, tough situations often arise around the holidays.

It can be extremely frustrating to have to deal with one more thing when your plate is overloaded with shopping, holiday preparations, and an end-of-year crunch time work load. I know that I, for one, can easily become overwhelmed during this time of year. I especially stress myself out by trying to get the PERFECT presents for everyone, but starting on this task a wee bit too close to the deadline. Sometimes, with everything that’s going on this time of year it is hard to have the patience for difficult situations.More

The U.S. military spent nearly a half-billion dollars on providing refurbished aircraft to the Afghan Air Force, only to abandon the contract and leave the planes collecting dust on airfields in Kabul and Germany.

With the planes potentially heading for the trash heap of the Afghanistan war, the chief military watchdog overseeing Afghanistan spending is launching a review into the terminated program.

"I'm very troubled with the fact we may have wasted a half-billion dollars on planes that don't work, will never be flown and will probably be scrapped," Special Inspector General John F. Sopko told FoxNews.com in a statement. "We intend to get to the bottom of this and hold people accountable."

South Carolina is poised to pass a bill that bansObamacare in their state.

The bill’s original sponsor, State Senator Tom Davis, says “the proposed legislation renders the Affordable Care Act void or inoperable through a handful of provisions,” all which are “legal, effective, and within the state’s power to do.”The core of the “South Carolina Freedom of Heath Care Protection Act” (HB3101) outlaws any state employees, officers, or agencies from implementing Obamacare.

The federal government can try to subject South Carolinians to the horrorsoftheACA – but they would have no personnel or funds in the state to actually carry it out. Obamacare would be nothing more than a ghost.

Davis says this component stems from the Supreme Court case of Printz v. United States:

This the season and I am hoping you will read this real version of my families Christmas List.

For my Oldest Daughter: Despite her grand announcement made everyday for the last two months there is no record of any 16 year old dieing because they didn’t get a car.

For my Oldest Son: Since his father never got a motorbike when asking all those years ago, he doesn’t need one either. Perhaps a normal haircut and a tutor in math they would be a lot more useful

My Youngest Daughter: Has no need for a “cooler” stereo and more clothing, I believe books are still available so please consider this as an alternative

My Youngest Son: If he gets a big TV before I do there will be no more cookies ever and the gaming system he has now is very useful no matter what he has written to you

The Puppy two years ago is doing fine I call him banker because of the deposits left around the house his first months I mention this because I am the one walking him so if there is a gift certificate to a gym in my stocking I will not be responsible for my actions.

My lovely wife is one of my most valued people in the world and I love to see her happy but please note happiness is not a reserved parking space at the mall and does not have anything to do with more clothes, shoes, purses or closet space.

My list has evolved over the decades and if you noticed it has gone from skateboard to motorcycle to flat screen tv and currently is: Anything Paid In Full, Peace On Earth and a self cleaning house

If you need to contact me I will be in church with my family because that is where it isn't illegal to pray

Problems with Maryland’s online insurance exchange, including with paper applications that were supposed to provide a fail-safe backup plan, are so severe that community groups have begun warning uninsured clients that they may not obtain coverage as intended by Jan. 1.

State officials began this week to contact all people whose applications are still pending, urging them to contact the state call center, try the state Web site again or get in touch with a certified insurance broker for help.

At a news conference Thursday, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) acknowledged the exchange’s “rocky launch” for the second time in recent weeks. But he said the state is on track to meet a goal he set two weeks ago to fix most of the Web site’s technological problems by mid-December. Of nine major issues identified, three remain to be addressed, he said, two of which involve computer screens freezing during the application process.More

Angela Spaccia sat motionless as the verdict was read. Her mother left the courtroom in tears.

Spaccia was found guilty of conspiracy to misappropriate public funds, conflict of interest as it relates to the handling of her pension plan, two counts of misappropriation of public funds based on the amounts of her salary and the salary of former city administrator Robert Rizzo, and three counts of conflict of interest for the handling of her own employment contracts in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

The 55-year-old mother was also found guilty on one count of secretion of an official record pertaining to a letter regarding former police Chief Randy Adams’ disability and one count of misappropriation of public funds as it pertains to Adams’ salary.

How many of us have experienced things we cannot explain? I have never been taken in by “ghost stories” and other things that the paranormal experts try to pass off as other worldly.

This leads me to tell you about four instances that happened to me that defy explanation.

The first was after my father died in November, 1978. He usually lettered anything he wrote. He always corrected me when I said he printed. He told me that printers print, he lettered. Anyway, my sister always wrote long hand and extremely backhand. But that Christmas, when I received a card from her, the address was lettered and looked just like what my father would have written. I actually went weak in the knees. My sister insisted she had always written that way, but I know differently.

The second was the discovery of my father’s I.D. badge from Precision Development Company, which was Martin & Schwartz before World War II.

After my father died and my mother was getting up in years, she only put out a ceramic Christmas tree during the holidays. She kept it in the bottom of a closet in my father’s old bedroom. No one had been in there for many years and the only thing left on his bureau was a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The strange occurrence happened when I set part of the Christmas tree on the bed to make sure I had room to return it to the closet. As I knelt down with the tree, I happened to look up and the I.D. badge was leaning against the front of the statue. Mom said she didn’t recall seeing the badge before that day and didn’t know where it came from. The badge is pictured above.

The third occurrence involved a large box of my toys from childhood. Mom said she didn’t know where it was and I let it go at that for a time. Then, one day, I happened to look in her garage and glanced up. There was a room above, but access to it was difficult. There was an opening that could only be accessed with a ladder. I know I had looked that room over before and there was nothing up there. However, on this day, I looked up and saw the corner of a box. I quickly got the ladder and retrieved the box. It contained all the toys I had been looking for. I have no idea where it had been before I found it that day.

The fourth instance just happened last week. I had all of the Post Card Club notices for a month or more and needed a couple more post cards and stamps. Our secretary was going to bring them to our annual Christmas dinner. I couldn’t find the original group anywhere. My boys had gone over my two spare bedrooms so everything I put in either room lately should be there. I was about ready to ask her for another set at my expense. Then, on Sunday, I walked by one of the bedrooms and saw this Food Lion bag. All the cards were there, right in plain sight.

Perhaps you have had a similar experience. Some things cannot be explained; so don’t try to look beyond the present and things you can do nothing about.

A union offers its members a narrow opt-out window that it tries to keep secret.

William “Ray” Arthur, a Michigan teacher, wrestling coach, and inductee into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, expected his last year before retirement to be uneventful. Taking advantage of the state’s new right-to-work law, he tried to quit the teacher’s union he’s been required to belong to for 35 years. Now the union is threatening to unleash creditors on him, and he’s fighting a legal battle to pry himself free.

“Pretty much, this is the only negative experience I’ve ever had associated with education,” Arthur tells National Review Online. “These people have not been transparent and honest with me, and I feel like I’ve been tricked into staying in the union. They’re willing to go to court to make me stay in the union and get my union dues.”

Michigan passed right-to-work legislation a year ago this week, but like Arthur, many workers remain bound to their union membership against their will. Unions have searched for legal loopholes that allow them to hang on to their workers — which is hardly surprising, given estimates that they will lose $46.5 million a year now that Michigan has become the 24th right-to-work state in the nation.